Concrete Angels
by Kades
Summary: A short one-shot based on the lyrics of "Concrete Angel" by Martina McBride,   warnings: scenes of child abuse and character death. no slash


This is just as short one-shot based on the song "Concrete Angel" by Martina McBride. I in no way condone child abuse and suspected abuse should always be reported. The lyrics to "Concrete Angel" appear in Bold Italic and except for the first verse, which I reworked to fit the story, the only change is the gender pronouns.

Warnings: Child-abuse, character death

_**He walks the halls all blue and black**_

_**Nobody knows what he's holding back**_

_**Wearing new robes each and everyday**_

_**He hides the bruises with magic and grace, oh **_

Draco Malfoy, Scion to the House of Malfoy, was in his third year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. To those around him he wore the face of a pampered prince from an ancient bloodline. What nobody could see was the truth behind the facade, after all he was a Slytherin, a survivor.

Draco had the best of everything, materially, after all a member of the Malfoy family could be seen as nothing less than aristocrat. But if one looked hard enough at his eyes, one could see they lacked the spirit and soul of the other children. He had died inside long ago.

The Malfoy family have deep dark secret, well infact they have many, but in this case the secret was that Draco was not wanted at all, to Lucius Malfoy, the child was a constant reminder of his wife's infidelity, Draco had been blood adopted at birth, to save face, but the lack of a subsequent child had angered Lucius and this anger was felt by Draco over the years. His mother Narcissa, had no interest in a child, and through the years the insanity that ran through her family had caught up with her, making her unstable and volatile.

Draco's first memory was of pain as the man he called father punished him with the cruciatis curse, he no longer rembered the misdeed, only the burning pain. Now his memories were filled with painful hexs and curses, beatings and lashings, Lucius preferred weapon was his magic, but he was not above taking his cane to Draco's back.

Draco hated his 'family' and often wished that he could die, before Hogwarts he was isolated, and the bustle of the busy castle unnerved him and made him jumpy. Here he acted like an arrogant pureblood, honestly though Draco cared not about blood purity, he just wanted somebody to care for him, to love him as family should.

At Hogwarts he wore glamours to hide the bruises as they faded and to hide the scars, nobody saw deeper than they wanted too. He was mocked and targeted for being a Slytherin, Gryfindors hexed, Ravenclaws ignored and for all their loyalty and fairness Hufflepuff was worst, they mocked and verbally assaulted any Slytherin that got in their way.

_**The teachers wonder but they don't ask  
>It's hard to see the pain behind the mask<br>Bearing the burden of a secret storm  
>Sometimes he wishes he was never born<strong>_

He wanted a confidant, someone to see his pain, but nobody could see him for who he was, all they saw was his father or his father's father, a Malfoy.

As his third year came to end, Draco caught glimpses of a young boy in the castle, his dark hair was messy and didn't sit flat, his eyes burning green, they boy seemed to be a first year hiding amongst the students, On the last day of term Draco saw the boy again, and found out his name,

"Harry" the boy told him "My name is Harry"

"Do you want to ride with me to the station?" Draco asked, he felt a kinship with this boy, a need to know him.

The two boys talked on the train and too soon it was time for them too part ways. Harry dissappeared into the crowded platform, Draco coould see his family waiting, they were prominent amongst the crowd.

"Come Draco" Lucius spoke harshly

Draco followed Lucius and Narcissa into the floo, calling "Malfoy Manor" before being swallowed in green flames.

In the distance Harry watched knowing the next time Draco and he met would be very different, he watched and waited he knew there was still time yet before the end. Harry wished he could help Draco, but he had no power here, not in this world, so he waited until it was time to go to Draco again.

_**Through the wind and the rain he stands hard as stone  
>In a world that he can't rise above<br>But his dreams give him wings and he flies to a place  
>Where he's loved concrete angel <strong>_

The Malfoys had floo'd into the parlour at Malfoy Manor, where a house-elf, took Draco's trunk and put it into his room. It wasn't long before Lucius began cursing Draco, but when Draco barely reacted to the cursing Lucius became angry and started thrashing Draco with his cane, the beating lasted hours, or so it seemed to Draco, before Lucius called a house-elf and told them to throw Draco into his room, and to clean up the blood soaked floor.

Draco could barely breathe, he didn't know it but his lung had been punctured, what he did know was that he was dying, and all he could think was finally.

The house-elf a faithful creature by the name of Peppy was distraught at seeing young Master Draco in this conditon, but Draco was ready to die and forbid the elf from summoning any help until he had passed on. As he lay in his room dying Draco thought of Harry his new friend, who he would never see again, as if triggered by thoughts of him Harry began to slowly materialise in the room,

"But how?" Draco coughed, spluttering blood onto the floor,

"Simple really, I am dead and you are dying, I was sent to help make the passage easier" Harry spoke softly.

"How did you die?" Draco asked Harry

So Harry told him, the abuse at the hands of his relatives, how he was killed after receiving his Hogwarts letter, it was then that Draco interrupted Harry,

"What was your last name?"

"Potter, Harry Potter,"

"I heard you died in an accident."

"hmm...is that what they are telling people"

Harry stood up,

"Its time Draco, the other's are waiting to meet you"

As Harry spoke Draco's body took it's last shuddering breath before silence filled the air, Harry silently held out his hand and Draco took it before both boys dissappeared from the Manor forever.

_**Somebody cries in the middle of the night  
>The neighbors hear but they turn out the light<br>A fragile soul caught in the hands of fate  
>When morning comes it will be too late<strong>_

_**Through the wind and the rain he stands hard as a stone  
>In a world that he can't rise above<br>But his dreams give him wings and he flies to a place  
>Where he's loved concrete angel<strong>_

_**A statue stands in a shaded place  
>An angel boy with an upturned face<br>A name is written on a polished rock  
>A broken heart that the world forgot<strong>_

Peppy felt little Master's death, after all house-elves where bound to families and could feel their owners through these bonds,Peppy could feel tears in his eyes as he picked up the body of young Draco Malfoy and dissappeared with a 'pop' reappering in the Ministry of Magic Atrium, at first no one noticed the lifeless body, but then the screaming started and soon, the aurors and ministry officials swooped upon the little boys body.

Peppy stayed by little masters side as a healer from St. Mungo's approached to verify that the boy was indeed dead. When the healer declared the child dead, mayhem broke loose, a magical child was a gift, to be loved and cherished, how had this happened and so the auror's set about discovering how young Draco Malfoy died.

Kingsley Shacklebot had worked on the Harry Potter case, the case had been kept quiet from the media but Petunia and Vernon Dursley now resided in prison in the muggle world, now this case eerily similar fell onto his desk. He looked down at the priliminary report -

AUROR CASE FILE M-493-739-277-MAL

Name: Draconicus Orion Malfoy

D.O.B: June 5, 1980

D.O.D: June 17, 1994

C.O.D: Punctured left lung leading to suffocation, severe cerebral haemorraging

The report than went on to list the injuries young Draco sustained prior to his death and on a second page was full medical history scan, although the physical injuries list was not as long as Harry's had been, the number of times the young Mr Malfoy had been exposed to curses and hexs including the cruciatis curse made his file exponentially bigger.

Kingsley was becoming tired of his work as an auror after the Potter case he had thought of changing departments, now investigating Lord and Lady Malfoy for the death of their son, he knew he no longer had the heart to be an auror.

Unfortunately the testimony of the house-elf Peppy was inadmissable, because he couldn't speak against his masters, if they forbid him, however that did not mean the senior Malfoy's would get away with Draco's death. With Lucius history as a suspected deatheater, even though he claimed the imperius, it was easy enough to get the Wizengamot to sanction the use of veriterserum on the Lucius and Narcissa, who then went on to admit to everything.

In Hogwarts, the students and staff mourned the loss of a young child, but none more so than Severus Snape, Severus had been Draco's godfather and blamed himself for the boy's death, for never seeing the signs and putting together the pieces. With the help of Minerva McGonagall a cumpulsory health check was iniated each year, to prevent the continual abuse of children, if a child was discovered to be in an abusive household they were removed and placed with other relatives or if they were muggle-born or had no relatives hogwarts became their gaurdian with a special wing open during the summer holidays for these children, they were watched over by the hogwarts staff who worked in rotation with volunteers from St. Mungo's and the ministry. The new wing was named the Dragon wing in remembrance of the young dragon who never got to return to the halls of Hogwarts, in this wing there was a recreation room and mini library called Harry's Room to remember the boy who never saw Hogwarts at all.

The Malfoy's now reside in Azkaban, twelve children now live year round in Hogwarts with one or two more being added each year. They were mostly muggle-borns, but a few were pure or half-bloods.

A new era was beginning in the wizarding world, no longer were they ignoring the signs of abuse amongst them, it was heavily punished and the survivors were protected.

And unbenkonwst to the staff at Hogwarts, two angels watched over their children, Harry and Draco often watched as the children of the wizarding world were spared their fate, Minerva and Severus would never know it, but of the children they saved, three had already seen the little boy with the messy hair and bright green eyes.


End file.
